70mm screening of Ghostbusters in LA on Halloween eve!

In recent years, getting to see Ghostbusters in a theater has risen, thanks to a similar resurgence in the film’s popularity, and the increasing number of cinemas with digital projectors, allowing them to screen DVD or Blu-ray films.

But the holy grail of Ghostbusters viewing remains getting to see a large-format, 70mm print. Shot on 35mm, Ghostbusters is actually blown-up for use in a 70mm print, but there are two things to consider when watching in 70mm. The first is that 70mm prints are rarer than original 35mm prints; or possibly, though it’s never been confirmed, the prints are new, having been struck after recent restoration clean-ups on the original negatives for use in home digital video) – either way, the prints are cleaner than the typical 35mm print, which after years of being shipped around, has been pretty beat up. Projectionists have even told me it’s not uncommon for some projectionists to nab a frame for their own keeping – over 26 years, you can imagine that and regular wear and tear has left a lot of holes in a print.

The second thing to bear in mind is that depending on when the print was struck, it either contains optical 6-track audio, or digital audio, meaning these prints are a step up from the standard 2-track stereo on a 35mm print.